What happened to malaysiakini o­n Jan 20 will undoubtedly go down as another barbaric chapter in the history of the current powers that be in Malaysia.

I write this in solidarity with malaysiakini and many other Malaysians in our struggle for a more balanced, fairer and freer media as an important step to cultivating a future generation of Malaysians who will nourish and cherish an honest exchange of ideas without fear or favour; in helping to realise a truly developed Malaysia - not just in the economic sense, but also culturally and spiritually.

Human beings, after all, do not live to eat (and, for that matter, wear the finest clothing, drive the fanciest car, admire the tallest buildings or most beautiful airport); they live to realise their humanity.

Umar Mukhtar said it well in his letter of support for what malaysiakini have been doing and why Malaysians should hold fast and strong to the idea that the kind of action taken by the Malaysian police was a step backward, undoubtedly o­n the wrong side of history in every way, including economically, because their action set back whatever that has been touted for the development of an IT economy in Malaysia.

On the other hand, I disagree with Peng Frank who asked that malaysiakini relocate their webservers outside of Malaysia. While I think he meant well, his suggestion, if taken up by malaysiakini, would spell their demise sooner or later.

To relocate outside Malaysia will signal that the courageous folk at malaysiakini have decided, in essence, to choose a safer haven to continue with the struggle. This presumably would deny the Malaysian powers that be the ability to attack malaysiakini at their whim and fancy. But that is a seriously flawed presumption.

If heavy-handed action could be undertaken by the Malaysian police o­n Jan 20, I would not be so sanguine as to think that the powers that be could not come up with whatever tactics to discredit and destroy malaysiakini using outside webservers. As a well-worn but not outmoded truism goes: "Where there is a will, there is a way".

What's more, should malaysiakini webservers be relocated outside of Malaysia, the powers that be would have an easier way to demonise the o­nline news provider as outsiders unconcerned about the welfare of Malaysia and Malaysians. Worse yet if the webservers were based in a Western nation, for malaysiakini would be painted as a stooge of Western hegemony and imperial intentions.

Have we not witnessed enough of the Mahathir government playing up such an odious angle to discredit opponents, sometimes to the extent of relying o­n issues so flimsy that they could o­nly be concocted by people who were motivated by their self-serving interests to hang o­n to their own political and/or economic positions?

Don't forget the mainstream media for they would be waiting for any additional means to discredit malaysiakini, who has dared to do what they have been pretending to do. The longer the o­nline news provider does what it has been doing and all within Malaysia, the more Malaysians will have the chance see the mainstream media as mere pretenders of a fair and balanced media.

On the other hand, should malaysiakini be demonised as an outsider and a Western stooge to boot, the mainstream media will be able to go back to what they have been pretending to do and bastardising the idea of a fair, balanced and free press.

This weightage of o­ne's right of say based o­n 'where o­ne lives' has been applied by some of the letter writers in malaysiakini who suggested that Malaysians working outside the country, who were critical of events here, were less sincere in their commitment to the country.

Here's a personal example: I am a Malaysian working in US. Since my heart remains here I'd come back at least twice a year (I live a frugal life in the US to save up for the air tickets since I do not have a high-paying job). And whenever I am back, I'd get into discussions with friends and acquaintances about various issues concerning the country, the Mahathir government, etc. Hardly anything wrong with that.

But what inevitably would surface was the way some of my friends and acquaintances would respond to me when I take a critical view of things happening here. They would say (directly o­n indirectly): of course you can afford to be critical because you are now making your living in US and should things in Malaysia turn sour you can always go back to the US. Nothing I say or do could convince them that I still consider Malaysia home.

So, imagine the kind of responses and attacks malaysiakini would be faced with if their webservers were relocated to a country outside of Malaysia.